Lyr Add: Funny Old World (Jim Boyes)

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Funny Old World (Jim Boyes)
From: Zaba
Date: 13 Aug 16 - 04:50 AM

A friend of mine, who's an American but can speak Czech very well, helped me with this "another try" part. She says judicial proceeding is called "trial" because there's tried defendant's guilt, so "another try" in fact is "another trial", "another judicial proceeding".
As for the "stitched up" part, I realized that it's similar as in Czech. We say "přišít někomu něco" which could be translated as "to sew sth. to sbd." and it means "to blame sbd. for someone's else guilt". Can't understand I didn't see it before :-).

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Funny Old World
From: Zaba
Date: 06 Aug 16 - 02:24 PM

Thanks! I knew to stitch up is to sew with a needle and thread but I couldn't make any sense of police stitching the jury up this way. Thanks for your explanation. I guessed it must be a kind of an idiom but I wasn't able to find out what.
I'm not very sure about another attempt to gain a wrong conviction. I imagine the formulation "another try" indicates that the attempt wasn't successful but here it was – the singer is arrested.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Funny Old World
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 06 Aug 16 - 01:57 PM

These are my interpretations - someone who knows better may come along shortly!

The jury were out for an hour and a quarter; that's not very long for the jury to reach a guilty verdict. The prosecution's case must have been very convincing.

all stitched up by a Thin Blue Line; literally, to stitch up is to sew with a needle and thread. But to stitch someone up means to blame them for the acts of someone else. False evidence would come from the police - Thin Blue Line. Here, the Thin Blue Line can also represent the thread.

a slip of the finger, a sleight of hand; these, I imagine, are the   alterations to the hand-written notes made by the police, and the deceptions in the false confessions presented in court as evidence.

Another try at the Quarter Sessions; perhaps this means another attempt to gain a wrong conviction.

Subject: Lyr Add: Funny Old World
From: Zaba
Date: 06 Aug 16 - 06:15 AM

I came across a song called Funny Old World – I've got sheet music for it and we learn to sing it with my son and a friend. We are not native English speakers and there are some formulations in the lyrics we can't uderstand exactly.

Funny Old World (Jim Boyes)

Here I sit in a prison cell, I can hardly sleep,
far away no chime no bell can pierce the fortress keep.
And God is dead, I saw him die,
and hope was lost like my alibi.
Here I sit in a prison cell, funny old world...

And I miss the fields and the pouring rain,
I miss the corn and the golden grain.
I miss the seas and I miss the storms,
children are born, they don't even know my name.

Here I sit in a prison cell, I can hardly sleep,
far away no chime no bell can pierce the fortress keep.
And God is dead, I saw him die,
and hope was lost like my alibi.
Here I sit in a prison cell, funny old world...

|: Didn't he go like a lamb to the slaughter,
didn't he know it was a waste of time?
The jury were out for an hour and a quarter,
all stitched up by a Thin Blue Line.

Altered notes and false confessions,
a slip of the finger a sleight of hand.
Another try from the Quarter Sessions,
another lie from the witness stand. :|

Here I sit in a prison cell, I can hardly sleep,
far away no chime no bell can pierce the fortress keep.
And God is dead, I saw him die,
and hope was lost like my alibi.
Here I sit in a prison cell, funny old world...

And the rich go free for bigger crimes,
the've got it made, they don't pay no fines.
They live and breath in better times,
and money talks if you read between the lines.

Here I sit in a prison cell, I can hardly sleep,
far away no chime no bell can pierce the fortress keep.
Funny old world...



We do understand it's a kind of a prisoner's lament, saying he's sad and missing all these common things we don't appreciate till we lose them. And it seems he doesn't feel guilty, complaining about false confessions and rich people not being convicted for bigger crimes.
But what does mean the second part of the sentence "The jury were out for an hour and a quarter, all stitched up by a Thin Blue Line."? I've found that "Thin Blue Line" means "police forces" but it doesn't make any sense for me anyway :-(. Also, I don't know what "a slip of the finger a sleight of hand" does mean and the third part that's tricky for me is "Another try from the Quarter Sessions". I've found that "Quarter Sessions" were court sessions held only four times a year, but I can't imagine what "a try" from such as court can be :-(.
Please, can anybody help?